Company Launches, Partnerships & Deals
Bela Bajaria has been upped to president of Universal Television and the studio’s comedy chief, Tracey Pakosta will now be EVP of comedy programming at NBC. Bajaria had been exec VP of Universal TV since joining the network back in 2011. The shakeup also includes, Vernon Sanders, who will move from overseeing comedy development at NBC to his previous role as head of the network’s current programming.
Creative company Logan has opened a virtual reality division to be headed by co-founder/director Ben Conrad. Its first project is for Oculus Rift entitled Virtual Drift, was through agency The Brooklyn Brothers featuring Formula Drifter Matt Powers.
Image Nation Abu Dhabi is partnering with Discovery Communications to launch Quest Arabiya, a new free-to-air Arabic-language channel for the Middle East and North Africa to launch in 2015 with offices in the UAE. Quest Arabiya will target Arab men aged 16-44 with factual and reality programs with locally-produced original material as well as localized content from Discovery’s library. Genres will be similar to the Discovery Channel’s current offerings. Image Nation’s Carl von Doussa will lead the new channel.
Disney has partnered with giant Youku Tudou for the local marketing of its Marvel films and TV shows. Youku Tudou will exclusively market the studio’s properties via trailers, ticketing, live events and original programming dedicated to theatrical features to its 500M unique monthly users.
Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has signed an overall deal with AMC. The overall deal excludes Kirkman’s latest comic-to-TV show at Cinemax titled Outcast.
TriStar Television is being relaunched as a boutique production unit within Sony Pictures Television. Suzanne Patmore Gibbs will be running the unit, following her three year stint as EVP drama development for Sony Pictures Television. The new division will focus on a small number of projects, including The Good Girls Revolt, which is being picked up to pilot by Amazon.
Heads at Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films have signed a production pact with Baker Entertainment Group to co-finance and co-produce three films starting with the $15 million budgeted thriller Inconceivable.
Korea’s CJ Entertainment has entered a film production and investment joint venture with Thailand’s Major Cineplex Group for a slate of 10 Korean-Thai co-productions and local films during the next three years to multiply their business across Southeast Asia. CJ will work with Thai talent, both established and emerging, in a bid to cultivate the local business. Since 2000, CJ has sold and distributed 290 Korean films in Thailand.
FILM
Robin Chandler, the former publicity head at Pixar Animation Studios, has been tapped by DreamWorks Animation as head of theatrical publicity. She will report to Jim Gallagher, head of the company’s theatrical marketing. Previously Robin was at Pixar for six years and before that was head of product publicity for Electronic Arts.
Ross Fanger has been tapped as the EVP and Head of Physical Production for the STX Entertainment Motion Picture Group and will handle physical and postproduction on all new projects produced by the film studio. After a decade at FOX he was most recently head of physical production at Marvel Studios.
Lionsgate has brought Joanna Massey on to be their VP Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, a new position. Massey will work closely as a corporate spokesperson and help develop corporate media strategies and messaging worldwide, assist with investor relations and collaborate on theatrical publicity initiatives. She will report to Peter Wilkes and Julie Fontaine. Previously she was SVP Media Relations at UPN and SVP Corporate Communications & Publicity for Hub Network.
Federico San Martin has been named the VP of Global Consumer Products, The Jim Henson Company, he was formerly the head of Global Toys, DreamWorks Studios.
TV
Endemol Shine USA unscripted television President Eden Gaha and EVP Rob Smith have added a slew of people to their team. Linda Giambrone, formerly EVP and Head of Production for Shine America, has been named EVP and Head of Unscripted Production and will handle production for the company’s entire reality portfolio. Showrunner Georgie Hurford-Jones has joined the company as SVP, Unscripted Programming. Rachel Dax has been upped from VP to SVP, Unscripted Production, reporting to Giambrone. Dax will oversee all day-to-day production for Endemol Shine USA’s unscripted programming. Robin Feinberg has been upped from VP to SVP in programming and will continue to oversee day-to-day programming efforts on multiple series. In unscripted development, Michael Weinberg has been promoted from VP to SVP while Laura Gibson and Christopher Potts have both signed on as VPs of unscripted development.
Carlos Deschapelles has been named the EVP of Network & Digital Sales at Univision Communications, he was previously the SVP of Sports Sales at the company.
Sarah Etherden has been named director of Corporate Communications at Blue Ant Media in Toronto. She was formerly the Communications Manager at Teletoon.
Michael Page has been named VP of digital local sales at Tribune Broadcasting. He comes from Gannett Digital Ventures and reports to Angela Betasso, senior VP of sales.
Michael Gara has been named SVP of Programming at Karga 7 Pictures. He was previously VP of Development at Endemol Shine Group.
Comcast has hired Chris Satchell as their Chief Product Officer. Satchell has specialized in consumer gadgets with experience at Nike, IGT, and Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. He’ll report to Comcast Cable CTO Tony Werner and handle teams in Philadelphia, Denver and Silicon Valley.
PactUS has tapped veteran reality TV executive producer Matt Gould as EVP of East Coast operations. The TV and content producers’ company was launched recently by former Nat Geo Channel CEO David Lyle. Gould was previously the EVP of Zig Zag Productions, where he led business and programming efforts for networks including Syfy, National Geographic, A&E, Nickelodeon and others.
LZ Granderson is joining ABC News as a contributor. LZ will continue as a senior writer at ESPN where he has worked since 2005 in such roles as NBA and tennis editor; host and co-producer of a variety of digital shows; and a member of their on-air tennis coverage team. Previously, LZ was a CNN contributor and worked at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Grand Rapids Press among others.
Dave Kaylor is now the director of Veteran Recruiting at Hearst Television in Boston. Before he was the Director of Engineering at WCVB-TV.
Scott Kirkpatrick has been named the SVP of North American Sales at the Digital Rights Group. He was previously the Executive Director, Distribution at MarVista Entertainment.
Kate Llewellyn-Jones has been named the Managing Director at TCB Media Rights in London. She was previously the SVP of Sales Management for France and Germany at Cineflix Rights.
Alex Baskin has been named partner of Programming & Development at Evolution Media in addition to his EVP status. Robert Carroll has been named VP of Current Programming at Evolution, up from his executive producer title.
Jeff Bumgarner has been named VP of programming at Original Productions, up from EP. He joins John Gray who has been promoted to SVP from VP of Programming & Development. Sarah Whalen has been promoted to EVP from SVP of Programming & Development at the company.
Scott Miller has been promoted from VP to SVP and Associate General Counsel, Legal & Business Affairs, Turner Content Distribution, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. in Atlanta.
Mark Neal has been named the Director of Current Programming at Lighthearted Entertainment, up from Development Producer there.
Scott Paskoff has been named the VP of Development & Programming at Keshet DCP, he was previously VP of Development at Bodega Pictures.
Ed Simpson has been promoted from VP to SVP of Business Development & International at Leftfield Entertainment. Shawn Witt has been promoted from VP to SVP of Programming there. Will Nothacker has likewise been upped from VP to SVP of Development.
Kurt Patat has been hired on as SVP of Corporate Communications at CMT. He was previously VP of Communications at MTV.
Daysun Perkins has been named SVP of Programming & Development, West Coast at Spectrum. He was previously a Development Executive at 44 Blue Productions.
CNN has tapped Dan Pfeiffer as a contributor. Until March he was the White House’s senior adviser for strategy and communications. He joined Obama’s presidential campaign in 2007 in communications and then served as communications director for much of Obama’s first term, before being promoted to senior adviser for the first two years of Obama’s second term.
Management, PR, Agencies
CAA has hired Maren Olson as an agent in the Film Finance & Sales Group. Maren was previously president of Traction Media.
Carolyn Hunt is now a partner at Barnes & Thornburg. She was previously a partner at Loeb & Loeb.
Jessica Marlow has been promoted to Partner at Weintraub Tobin, up from associate.
Paul Reader has been named VP and Chief Strategy Officer at Andrew E. Freedman Public Relations.
Music, Digital, Publishing, Misc.
Time Warner CFO Arthur Minson will be departing the company but stay on to advise TWC as it seeks to complete its sale to Charter Communications. WeWork, a privately held company that rents office space and services to independent and start-up firms has named him on as president and COO.
Kate Shepherd is the new EVP of Content at Contend, she was previously the VP of Development at Shine America. Jon Sneider joins her as the new CMO and EVP of Client Partnerships at Contend. He hails from RedFin where he was VP of Advertising and Brands.
Digital media company Mashable has tapped Eric Korsh as their new director of Mashable Studios, its video programming and branded entertainment division. There he will oversee a team to develop, produce and distribute original video programming and branded video content for advertisers.
Michael Minkler has been named the Chief Creative Officer at Moving Pictures Media Group along with his title as Managing Director.
Snapchat has named Sean Mills their head of original content. He was previously the president of The Onion and helped it grow to a readership of 10 million. In his new role he will grow the social media company’s ever-expanding slate of original programming. Mills will report to Nick Bell.
Vulture has hired Neil Janowitz as the editorial director of the New York magazine's online culture and entertainment section. He most recently was the assistant managing editor of EW.com
Ronnie Ycong has been upped from VP to SVP of Exhibitor Relations & Operations, Spotlight Cinema Networks.
Albert Cheng has been named the new COO at Amazon Studios. He hails from Disney where he spent a decade building its online and on-demand platforms in the digital division. Bob Berney is the new Head of Movies Distribution and Marketing. He was previously the CEO of Picturehouse.
Janice Brock is now the Joint Head of A&R, UK and Head, UK Management Division, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, up from Director.
Mark Lafontant has joined LA-based ad and marketing agency Buddha Jones as a creative producer. He previously spent 12 years as VP Creative Advertising at Walt Disney Studios.
Tanya Greig Perara has been named the SVP of Business Affairs, Film Music, Universal Pictures. She was previously the VP of Business & Legal Affairs, Telemundo Media. David Ventura has also been named a Joint Head. He was promoted from his VP position in International at the company.
Prettybird, a creative think tank and branded content company, has hired Suzanne Hargrove as executive producer. Hargrove hails from Bandito Brothers where she was EP and handled the commercial division and also produced longer format material including TV doc Shaun White: Russia Calling and web series work on Mortal Kombat.